The painters painted yesterday, and we did some pre-move in stuff (like sealing grout and a preliminary cleaning). The movers should be here between 8 and 9 tomorrow morning. It’s very disjointing to be in this split frame of reference, and I am really glad it will only last another day.

When we were there earlier, I took a few pictures, as promised, of the wonderful surprises I received from ITGirl and Lu.

First up, my wonderful Fiber Godmother sent me this great package of goodies!

I am indeed spoiled – just look at all that! She sent me 2 skeins of Lorna’s Lace in the Irving Park color way – SO pretty!, 3 sample packs of Soak in 3 different scents (been wanting to try this, and now I finally can!) a tasty mint tea (gone shortly after I took the picture actually!), a Burt’s Bees facial pack (which I will use once we are over at the new house to help me relax!) an adorable miniature sheep, and the Knit Fix book! Thank you Fiber Godmother for being so sweet and for making sure my package was mailed out early enough to hit my old address – you really treated me great! I hope your pal spoiled you well – you deserve it!!

Next up, Lu (who was my secret pal a few swaps back) sent me a completely unexpected surprise package. Her note said she saw on my blog how I was currently obsessing with greens and thought I should have this:

Yea, I will have no problem at all getting comfy with that skein of green goodness! That picture isn’t color accurate – the lighting was weird and the flash didn’t go off, and I didn’t have a lot of time to play with color correction (see movers arriving between 8 and 9 am). Trust me, it’s simply beautiful!! Go check out her etsy store and see for yourself!

And finally, one quick shot of my kitchen this afternoon

Don’t I just wish he was standing in my kitchen! I was given a life sized cutout of him a while back and when we were bringing some stuff in this afternoon, he was left behind the counter – too funny not to take the shot

I’m off to bed. ALLEGEDLY the Internet install at the new place happens tomorrow, but I’m not holding my breath. I haven’t scoped out the wireless options over there, so I’m not sure when the next post will be. You can bet I will be exhausted tomorrow either way.

Till then…

This has SO been my mail week (and that means another pic heavy post, sorry!). Check out what the mail man brought me yesterday! (most are clickable for big)

I admit, I couldn’t wait till I had time to read it, so I peaked insde, and now I can’t wait to really read this book!

Note the cameo appearance by the flourishing herb pot? (imagine the google hits THAT’S gonna bring :winky: ) Maybe my black thumb curse is lifting?

Now that book in and of itself is a great mailbox treasure (never mind I bought it for myself). But what comes next is incredible!

I was the very lucky recipient of a gift from an Angel. (I have not received confirmation from her whether or not it is ok to say who she is, so for now, she shall be referred to affectionately as Angel.) Why she sent me these things is irrelevant – the fact is, she did. And for that, I am eternally grateful.

Look at all the goodness! Look at the Reese’s Swoops!

Let’s look even closer…

A purdy tape measure!

The bear (who I’ve been informed has no name yet… I’m working on it!) has found his new home snuggled up between a stash basket and one of my felted totes

2 adorable polymer pins. The bear is residing on a bag strap, the flowers have moved to my over the desk corkboard

Just look at the stunning colors of that Wildfoote! It is going to knit up GORGEOUS

Two beautiful sock patterns (has anyone found more hours in the day yet?)

Still with me? Good, THERE’S MORE!

Pretty stitch markers, with a row marker too!

A sheet of pretty butterfly stickers, a great Pocket Yardage Guide (that I have been wanting!) and a really cool book Knitting Tips & Trade Secrets (more good reading!!)

Super pretty wool, along with a ball of hand spun, kettle dyed mohair. Yum!!

And even MORE Wildfoote in my favorite shade of green – deep hunter!

Can you believe all the wonderful things? I have seriously been spoiled rotten this week, with such great things finding their way to my hands. I am very appreciative of every single gift, and will smile when I use them, because they were given with such wonderful intent behind them. Thank you to each of my wonderful gifters!!

I decided I’m not going to be flashing any stash pics today. I ran out of organize and photoshoot time. It’s nowhere near as large as many, and bigger than it was a year ago. ’nuff said?

Knit a tiny bit last night, but after a few rows my eyes were getting heavy so I put the socks down. (My Sockapaloooza pal will thank me!) Today is about catching up on a gazillion podcasts, knitting, and later tonight, having that Indian food with friends we were supposed to have last night.

As much as I would like to forget it, if you live in a daylight savings time zone, tonight’s the night for Springing Ahead! Don’t they realize that’s an hour of valuable knitting time we’re losing? Maybe it’s just a bad April Fools Day joke?

And speaking of April fools…. (i heart think geek!)

When I was little, I LOVED to get mail – it made me feel special. I had various pen pals thru the years, as well as letters from camp friends, and especially from my grandmother who lived in Florida and I didn’t get to see nearly enough. And as I got older, the mail became less of a happy thing as it morphed from all fun things to all bills. (No I am not going to lament the death of personal handwritten communications, but I won’t. You’re welcome :winky: )

There are times though that the mail is good. It brings an anticipated purchase, or a fun filled SP package, or any number of other expected items. And then there are days the mail is very very good.
Yesterday was one of those days.

First of all, HUGE thank you’s to Nyxxie for the very unnecessary but OH SO VERY very appreciated surprise! Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the 1st Opal and 1st Koigu to reside in my stash?

Opal up close

Koigu up close

Those colors!! I can’t wait to see both of these knit up! I so appreciate this Nyxxie, thank you just doesn’t seem to cut it.

I also got another surprise in the mail from very, very far away! And by very, very, I mean Hong Kong! (and it only took 6 days to arrive – pretty impressive!) Look what Kimberli sent me!!

Both of these wonderful ladies made a definate difference in my day. Thank you both so very much.

I know I said I was gonna back away from SP swaps for awhile but this one caught my eye and I had to join. I’ll probably be fiddling with an attempt at a button because I dont want to resize someone else’s work and the button size they are using is bigger than will fit in my side bar… here are two of the ones they are using, stay tuned to see what I come up with for my sidebar. (BTW, signups are open till April 2, so go check it out,. You know you wanna!)

Because I don’t want to let Erica down or break my promise, I leave you with my iPod MeMe. (It’s pretty easy – just turn on your iPod, set it on shuffle, and jot down the first 10 songs it plays.)

1. Call and Answer – Barenaked Ladies
2. Shameless – Garth Brooks
3. Hands and Knees – Sammy Hagar
4. Another Rainy NIght – Queensryche
5. Burn – Jo Dee Messina
6. Vertigo – U2
7. Pretending – Eric Clapton
8. Better Days – Goo Goo Dolls
9. Why Georgia – John Mayer
10. 5150 – Van Halen

(Cee, I thought for sure I was gonna have a Halen-less mix like you did! That would have been a tragedy!) This may be the 1st time in a long time I didn’t get two in a row of someone – that seems to happen alot when I’m knitting, which I was not doing when I listened to these random 10.

And because I’m a no pressure kinda girl, if you wanna share a random 10 from your iPod consider yourself tagged (Leave me a comment though so I know to go see what you’re jamming to!)

Karen came and picked me up around 12, and we headed over to Granny’s to see what kind of trouble we could get into was on sale. Here’s what I can’t show you (SP gifties)

And what can I show you?

There’s 2 skeins of that Reynolds Lopi, which will be transformed into fuzzy feet for the man (black and grey are “manly colors”, he might actually wear them!), the Cat Bordhi 2 socks/2 circs book, and 2 skeins of Trekking XXL. The pic above is slighly off in colors, the one below is closer – imagine something smack in the middle of the 2.

Karen and I actually spent just about 2 hours there! And we got to meet Purling Swine (Ann)! (She is every bit as funny and wonderful in person as she is on her blog, even if her math is slightly off :wink: ) She was kind enough to give me the overview version of 2 socks on 2 circs on her Jaywalkers in progress (because I am such the “show me” learner) and I think I understand why people say it is faster than Magic Looping. But I do so love the loop, so I will probably find a time and place for each of them.

We finally pried ourselves away, and went down the block to Green Cactus for some Mexican food. Yum! Karen is such good company that by the time I got home, we had been gone way longer than I intended, but the work will still be there tomorrow (I have SnB tonight or I would do it tonight. Ah well… )

When I walked to my door, I had a package! Mandy sent me some Camo yarn she had (she knows my honey is a former Marine and I was having trouble finding it locally)

Not sure how well you can see them but she also sent me BEAUTIFUL stitchmarkers too!

And as if that wasn’t enough, there was the MOST ADORABLE card!

Many many thanks Mandy!!

And now, I am off to get ready for SnB. Happy Thursday!!

PS – The “TNT Socks for Jenn” are still moving along nicely – hopefully they will be done this weekend

I have no idea who to thank, but SOMEBODY needs a very serious thanking!
Michelle seriously rocks!! She had a contest on her blog at the end of December looking for yarn suggestions, and (hold on!) I actually won! I NEVER win anything, but apparently that’s changed

I have been knee deep in silly annoying shopping cart code work all morning, and the doorbell just rang – UPS with an Amazon delivery for me. :yaymail:
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**edited to add
something really weird happened! I’m guessing the original second half of this post got eaten when I updated it to add the info about Michelle being the secret package person – I have no idea how!

Anyway, Michelle sent me

A HUGE thank you to Michelle for my 1st blog contest win and my 1st EZ Book (that I actually own and don;t have to give back to the library!)

Sorry, musta been dozing out – I’m soooooo sleepy! It’s another grey chilly rainy day and while I would love to have just curled up and knit, I got a few outside errands done and some webby work done. I have a bit more to do but took a break to take and post the pictures I keep promising.

So, you’ve been warned – lotsa pictures ahead! (click ‘em for full sized – and as an aside, the pics were taken in the “mud room” I guess you’d call it? We have a VERY thick glass table top out there in semi storage, wrapped in an old stained yucky blanket to protect it from harm – the gross thing you see behind some of these shots is that blanket – looking at the pics, I think we need to get a new protection mechanism in place LOL EWWWW)

1st, a RAOK from Rebecca! SO sweet kiddo, especially with how busy you are with law school and all! Thanks, I do love it, and the yellow is a color that I always I like but end up not buying for myself so this was a perfect gift!

Next, check out the awesome package I got from my Felted Bag KAL secret pal! A book Ive been eyeing for quite a while now, Vanilla and Coconut soap from that most excellent Alchemic Dragon place, 4 ” D” scrabble tile stitch markers, and 2 yummy skeins of Fire Engine Red Hand Painted Yarns – the picture is close but doesn;t quite capture the stunning depth of this color – THANK YOU FKAL SP!!!

And from my last SP (My wool Fairy Em… not only did she send me a really cool body gel and some Nestle Smarties (which are nothing like American sour smarties, these are like M & Ms sorta, very good! Of the 5 packs she sent, between my honey and I there are 2 left LOL)but she also made me a gorgeous handknit pouch washcloth (Em emailed to let me know that the pouch is intended to wash with, and since it is superwash wool, it’s safe!) The color is so pretty and it is so soft, and I am flattered she made it just for me!

At SnB the other night, Cee gave me some chenille she had sitting in her stash that she wasn’t going to use – a cone and 4 balls. I have no idea exactly how much is here, or what I might do with it, but I liked it and figured at some point, it will tell me what it wants to be.

And last, but certainly not least, today as I was headed out to get my errands done, the mailman left my 1st package from my new SP6 the Naughty Elf CORRECTION – this awesome package below is from my KRSP, not my SP6. Elf, I still adore ya, but the kudos go to my KRSP instead – gushing praises stand as originally posted) She sent me a book I’ve been wanting to read, a yarn cutter, cable needles, Reeses PB pumpkin, a pumpkin Snickers, an adorable “Frankie” pen, and THE softest most yummy Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande yarn – the color is so pretty, Im thinking the grey outside light and flash wash it out a bit, but you get the basic idea. Her really sweet card suggested a cabled scarf, which I have been DYING to try – if I can ever finish this sweater… I finally finished the 1st sleeve late last night, and plan to cast on tonight for the 2nd one, then seaming…. anyway, look!!

I took a gamble and called a (not so) LYS this afternoon. I think I have mentioned I like a few of the local ones but have not fallen in love with any one shop. I got some very good recommendations about one that is a good 45 minute drive – and after I called, I think I know why! The lady I spoke with was so extremely nice, and although I could hear the shop was busy she did not rush me off the phone, instead she politely asked if she could have my number so she could call me back in a few minutes – which she did! They don’t specifically have a Magic Loop class but the owner knows it, and uses the method often – she told me to come by the shop on their late night (any Wednesday) and she would be happy to show me how! Well worth the drive, I’d say! I am going to try tomorrow night, otherwise, it’s next Wednesday night FOR SURE! I WILL make socks LOL

Gotta get moving, still way too much to do and not enough time to do it – at least with him gone this week, I dont feel as bad working well past dinner time.

What a great mail day!

Not only did I get a teaser letter from my Felted KAL SP that had 2 YUMMY packs of bath salts in them (Thanks so much – I LOVE them!) and the promise of spoiling to come, but I aslo got 3 CDs from the CD swap (thanks to Teresa, Jenifer, and Kim for the CDs, can’t wait to settle in and listen to them! )

Sedie sent me a wonderful RAOK that I can’t wait to use! 2 vouchers for a United Artists theater, and man, could I use a fun night at the movies! Not only that, for winning part of one of the contests she had on her blog, she sent me 2 cable needles! YAY! I keep saying I want to try cabling!

I also got the Addi Turbos I ordered last Wednesday from Carole Thacker on Ebay. FAST shipping, VERY reasonable prices, looks like I found my source for afforable Addis! Now, to find some time to spend with the Magic Loop booklet and make it click in my head!

As if that wasn’t enough, I got something else that I can’t mention because I got one for me, and one for all 3 of my SPs LOL. If I post it here, and one of them happens to be reading, the surprise would be spoiled. Suffice to say, it’s way cool and I’m really happy I got them!

And finally, I got a ton of catalogs, knit picks amungst them. I don’t know why I always seem to get mine 2 weeks after everyone else, but Im glad it’s here. I’m looking forward to curling up and thumbing thru them all.

I got alot done on my lap throw before I passed out last night (literally! needles in hand, I went out for the count! Fortunately I was at the end of a row, and didn’t drop any sttitches before my honey came in and took everything out of my hands!) I got an email today letting me know my additional skeins of the plymouth chunky shipped today so they should be here soon . And no, I haven’t decided anything about the bad bootie, except the one I have is headed for the trash – I tried frogging it, and since I apparently did such a good job of weaving in ends after I joined evrything, things got a little tangled up, and I decided it wasn’t worth the stress. I’ll figure out what I am doing in the next few days – for now, I am enjoying the lap throw again, almost like a familiar old friend I havent seen in years. Sounds silly, I’m sure, but this was the 1st “project” I ever bought supplies specifically for, post scarves. I frogged this things maybe 4-5 times before I finally poured thru a pattern book, found something I liked, and figured out my own pattern that would work for my very own throw.

Still have a bunch of work to do, and the baby sweater is still drying, so that’s it for today. And how’s your Monday?